RETURN OF CITY OF LONDON IMPERIAL VOLUNTEERS FROM WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA

FRAMPTON, George: England, 1900, Bronze, 76mm
Obv: Londinia, receiving a Volunteer, is flanked by four allegorical figures blowing horns made from elephant tusks.
Exergue: PRO PATRIA REGINA ET VRBE (For Country, Queen and City)
Rev: Union Jack and the Volunteer standard on a pole raised on a mount surrounded by trees and flanked by two cannons, rays of sun behind.
Exergue: THE CITY OF LONDON IMPERIAL VOLVNTEERS RAISED AND EQVIPPED FOR THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA BY THE CITIZENS OF LONDON FORMED DECEMBER 1899 RETVRNED TO LONDON OCTOBER 1900
Signed: GEO. FRAMPTON
Issued by the Corporation of the City of London (#29)
Mintage: 550
Ref: BHM 470/3684; Eimer 213/1848; Hibbard A15;  Weiss BW555

The second of two South African Wars was waged from 1899-1902 between the Afrikaners (who called it the Second War of Freedom) and the British (who called it the Boer War). It was prompted by the discovery of gold and diamonds, which provoked a massive influx of British miners and prospectors, whose presence caused resentment among the mainly agrarian Afrikaner population. Taxes imposed by the Afrikaners and the subsequent British revolt finally led in 1899 to the Afrikaners besieging the British troops. British counterattacks led to what seemed a victory, but the Afrikaners now resorted to guerilla tactics under the leadership of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts. General Horatio Herbert Kitchener finally defeated the Afrikaners by burning their farmsteads and imprisoning civilians in concentration camps. In the Peace of Vereeniging (1902), the Afrikaners were forced to accept British rule.

This medal commemorates the role played by the London Imperial volunteers in the Boer war.

LINK to the Boar War (from Wikipedia)

LINK  to biography of Horatio Herbert Kitchener (from wikipedia)

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